Poems from a Witch’s Pocket – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Magic, identity, friendship, nature, spells.
Children’s book title: Poems from a Witch’s Pocket.
Children’s author: Laura Theis.
Children’s illustrator: Kate Lucy Foster.
Genre: Children’s poetry.
Published by: The Emma Press.
ISBN: 9781915628428.
Recommended for young adults aged: 10+.
First published: Paperback September 2025.
This children’s book is ideal for: Children who enjoy magical worlds, poetry writing, and exploring the natural world through spell-like verse.
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Our review:
Poems from a Witch’s Pocket is a sparkling new poetry collection for children aged 10+, written by Laura Theis and illustrated by Kate Lucy Foster. The collection presents the scattered contents of a young witch’s pockets: scraps of spells, reminders, notes, and observations, brought together to build a magical world full of nature, mystery, and transformation. These are poems to dip into or read aloud, effortlessly blending the practical with the surreal.
A junior witch walks through her training with curiosity and care, and the poems reflect that balance of wonder and routine. Readers will find spell instructions, party plans, magical complaints, and poetic dreams across a landscape of creatures, weather, and transformation.
Covering themes of identity, self-care, the power of nature, friendship and family. Poems from a Witch’s Pocket also tackles subjects including dreams, sadness, complaining, not wanting to get up and hibernation, and cats.
There’s also plenty to spark ideas for Halloween-related creative writing, and other genres such as: rules (Unfortunately The Witches’ Code), advertising (B/AD), and instructions (Party Planning Notes, Pumpkin Party, To Do and How to Walk on Water).
‘So You Want to Become a Hovel Witch’ has to be a highlight. Perfect for the run-up to the autumn half term, with lines like “you need a cake tin full of nos” and “you need friends with strong stomachs and a tolerance for difficult creatures” it may well sum up the environment at school!
There’s also a section at the end – Write Your Own Witch Poems! – which includes lots of useful creative ideas suitable for 9-13 year olds.
Our verdict
This outstanding themed poetry collection mixes storytelling, thoughts, ideas, observations, quirky moments and creative writing prompts. It’s structured to be read for enjoyment but also works well for shared reading or classroom use. The variety of formats, tones, and topics allows readers to take what they need: entertainment, inspiration, or a spark for writing.
The tone suits KS2 pupils and lower KS3, with enough range to support both quiet reflection and active classroom discussion. The illustrations add detail without distraction, supporting the text rather than overpowering it. Quirky, fun and engaging, Poems from a Witch’s Pocket is ideal for independent readers in upper primary and early secondary, and also to read to, explore and model with KS2 children. Highly recommended.
Teaching and book club discussion ideas
- Write your own witch poem using one of the prompts.
- Use “Party Planning Notes” as a model for instruction writing.
- Discuss how the poems balance humour and emotion.
- Explore how nature is described and used in spell poems.
- Create a character based on “the hovel witch” model.
- Compare traditional spell formats with free verse spells.
- Turn “The Witches’ Code” into a set of classroom rules.
- Explore how layout and typography add to the meaning.
- Read aloud in pairs and discuss performance style.
- Link poems to seasonal events, such as Halloween or autumn.
Many thanks to The Emma Press for the review copy.
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